Le Maistre, Sébastien ; Folkner, William ; Rivoldini, Attilio ; Dehant, Veronique M A ; Yseboodt, Marie ; Van Hoolst, Tim ; Kahan, Daniel S ; Buccino, Dustin

Poster presented at AGU fall meeting, San Francisco, USA on 2019-12-09

Abstract: The Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) on-board the InSight mission uses the lander’s X-band (8 GHz) radio system in combination with tracking stations of the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to deduce the rotation and orientation of Mars. The determination of precession and nutation of the spin axis are the main objectives of RISE. While measuring nutation precisely requires accumulating data over almost a Martian year, the precession rate can already be determined after one Earth year of operations with better accuracy than today. Here we present the improved precession rate and the associated moment of inertia of Mars. We compare it with the results based on other spacecraft and we discuss the constraints implied by this new value on the interior structure of the planet.

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Funding: PRODEX/PRODEX/PRODEX